Sparrabeth Snippets
by TravellingTypewriter
Summary: A collection of short stories and flash fiction using 5-word writing prompts. Sparrabeth galore!


_Prompts taken from 'Hang the Rules' amazing blog._

_Prompt 1# "Actually… I just miss you"_

* * *

_"Elizabeth Swann."_

_"What?"_

_"I know," He smirked. "Curious, isn't it?"_

_Curious._

He had voted for her. He, Captain Jack Sparrow, had voted his murderess as his King. He, who had vindictively carried a loaded pistol for nigh ten years, swearing to fire it only into the heart of Captain Barbossa. And what crime had Barbossa committed to deserve such a doggedly sought vengeance snapping at his heels for a decade? Mutiny. Surely she ought, therefore, to have deserved much worse. What is mutiny compared to murder?

_We are clearly amongst pirates_. She thought to herself. _All rules of morality out of the window_. Of course, he would value his ship more than his own life. Not that she was fool enough to assume that a vote would equal forgiveness. No, she was not so naive. Perhaps Jack intended for her to die in battle, and then what would it matter if he had to begrudgingly vote for her if she would take on the role for barely a day? Perhaps, for a man who valued his legend so much, this was his revenge; to shape hers for all eternity: Elizabeth Swann, the twelve-hour King. Inept, hopeless, and merely a woman to boot.

She stood at the battlements of the island town of Shipwreck Cove, looking out towards the dozens of ships. Her army. At dawn, they would fight. She dared not sleep, lest they all weighed anchor and ran for the horizon as she dreamed. Besides, her mind was too heavy for rest, and so she paced, and pondered, and looked out for signs of escape.

_Curious_.

"Can't sleep?"

She spun her head so fast, her neck cricked in protest.

"Jack!" She gasped, rubbing her sore neck as he took - she couldn't help but notice - a tentative step towards her. King or no King, vote or no vote, they continued to circle each other, like sharks, each waiting for the other to bite. "I thought you would be enjoying the night. It could well be our last, you know."

"Could say the same to you, love." He smirked, his hands gripped behind his back.

Elizabeth couldn't help but brace herself, wondering if he had in hand a pistol or a dagger. Her hand drifted instinctively towards her own belt.

Jack noticed at once, drawing his sword, and holding its point against the soft flesh of her neck.

"Easy, now, your nibs." He smirked, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. "I'm only here to talk."

Elizabeth cocked her chin arrogantly. "When a trickster such as yourself approaches with your hands behind your back, you can hardly blame me for practicing some caution."

"You should be quick about it, next time." He paused, looking concerned as he lowered his sword, returning it to his sheath. "If I'd wanted to, I'd have cut you clean in two before you'd even realised. Best look sharp tomorrow, love, if you want to make it out alive."

"Don't worry about me, Jack." She turned back towards the view, staring up towards the roof of the cave. A gaping hole revealed the night sky above, ink blue glittering with stars. "I'll be fine."

Jack didn't respond. He stepped closer, and she turned her head to watch him out of the corner of her eye. She knew better than to trust him.

No one spoke until he stood next to her, admiring the skies, as she had.

"Not a bad night. Let's hope the weather holds."

She wrinkled her nose. "Why are you here, Jack?"

He smiled crookedly. "My intuitive sense of the female creature informs me that you are," he turned towards her, his mouth much too close to her ear, "_troubled_."

Tears welled in her eyes, her attempts to blink them away causing them only to gush down her cheeks all the faster. Perhaps it was the memory of when he had last spoken those words, and how different things had been between them. Perhaps it was the surprising tenderness in his voice, but something about his presence made it impossible to maintain the iron wall which she had built so solidly - or so she had thought - around herself.

"You hardly know." She whispered.

"Oh, I do, love." He said, his tone impossible to read.

As she turned towards him, Elizabeth saw that he was looking at her. Looking at her in the way which only Jack could. As though he _knew _her, as though he _understood _her. The way he had looked at her the last time he had sensed her troubles… the way he had looked at her as she had closed the manacle around his wrist. Tears fell silently down her cheeks, and for once, despite being a man well known for his discomfort towards crying women, he didn't run away. Neither dared move, or so much as blink, as though the moment would be broken.

"I'm not sorry." She said, at last, her voice barely more than a whisper. "For what I did to you. I… I can't be. I stand by what I said, that it was the only way. And you know that. Because if you hadn't, you could have cried out to Gibbs and you know as well as I that your crew would have climbed back aboard to save you. And I can't be sorry, because if I allow myself to feel… that. It would drown me, Jack. It's been trying so hard to drown me, and I can't let it."

Still, he said nothing, watching her, allowing her this, because, oh, how she needed it.

"And so, you were wrong. When you said that I came to save you just because I felt too guilty to leave you there. I don't feel guilty. I _can't. _It would be too much. And so… actually… I just miss you, Jack. I came for you because I missed you. I realised the moment I set foot in the longboat that I needed to find a way to bring you back. Even now that you're here, I still miss you, because you haven't been here, not really, not as you were before. We've changed, and I know that it's all my doing but… I just miss you, Jack."

Jack waited a long moment, his eyes trailing slowly across the sharp contours of her face, to her full, soft lips, and back to those dark, mesmerising eyes, pleading with him silently to do something, say _something_, to acknowledge her confession. Tilting his head back, he threw her one of his sparkling, golden smiles.

"'Course you do, love. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."


End file.
